EDWARD THOMAS YOUNG. – Young’s Hotel, at the capital of Washington Territory, is a conspicuous building, well known to the traveling public and to the members of the legislature, and is the pride of the city. Its proprietor, whose name it bears, is a native of London, England. He was born in 1846. At an early age he crossed the water and lived with his parents at Newcastle, Canada. Subsequently he went to Bruce county, near Lake Huron, where he worked at the carpenter’s trade and general building, and acquired the means to cross the continent.
He came with a brother, William, to Santa Barbara, and there still further increased his capital by strict attention to contracting and building. Sickness, however, set him afloat once more; and in Oregon he found employment as bridge builder on the Oregon and California Railroad. Advancing northward, he reached Olympia in 1869. He still continued his trade of house and general building, and in 1872, after a brief sojourn in Old Tacoma, started the restaurant and bakery at Olympia, afterwards known as the New England Bakery and Restaurant, conducting it with such satisfactory results as to warrant him in enlarging his business by the lease of the Tacoma Hotel. Three years and eight months of operating that house enabled him to make the building his own by purchase; and he has since kept it up to its old mark of popularity, indeed, passing that mark with each successive season.
In 1882, in company with his wife, he made a tour of the Eastern states, visiting his old home in Canada. Upon his return to the United States he visited Washington City, and secured the order for the opening to settlement of a strip of land fifteen miles wide and sixty miles long across the entire reservation of chief Moses. His efforts at the same time went far towards throwing open the entire reservation to the public. The valuable silver quartz mines there, in which he and others were interested, was his incentive to accomplish the work of opening the country for settlement.
Mr. Young is president of the Eagle Mining Company of Mount Chopaaca and Smilkimeen mining district, Okanagan county. This county has been created since the reservation was thrown open. It previously formed a part of Stevens county.
Arriving home from his trip, he again assumed the management of his hotel, adding such improvements as the progress of the times and growth of the city demanded.
He has filled public offices, having been mayor of Olympia, and member of the council ten years
His wife, Josephine Dofflemyer, is a native of Olympia. The fruits of their union were six children, one of whom is deceased. Mr. Young is one of the broad-minded men of the place, and very energetic in the pursuit of his objects; and he has done as much as any one citizen of the beautiful city of Olympia to bring her great advantages to the knowledge of railroad people and capitalists. The results of his efforts will be seen – like the bread cast upon the waters – to return after many days.